SerGoldenhandtheJust
Deluded Dreamer
My personal problem with the read is that to get this "second home" feeling, it felt kind of rammed down the viewer's throat. Like Ash was railroaded into making this a supposed second home and that he supposedly loves Alola more than anywhere else. It makes it feel less natural and more like, well, what I say about the Alola League in general: Ash was gonna win and they were gonna employ anything necessary to make sure it happened, regardless of being a good decision or not. That they had to completely shift the genre and strip Ash's wanderlust in order to make their "second home" setup just reinforces the matter.
So, I don't know if I'd call it perfect when it's blatantly engineered to be so rather than a result of a natural occurrence.
Rammed down the viewers throat? Nope, I HEAVILY disagree with that. Alola was the only region where Ash actually had a home and stayed at, with a family in kukui and burnet. Alola heavily emphasizes on home and giving back to nature in its culture, a culture ash became aware of in ep7 with that sweet market lady explaining it to him and by ep20 , that treasure Island episode with ash and Pikachu he clearly shows his love for the region and it's culture. Unlike other regions, this time ash decided to enroll in a school, therefore he stayed at a certain place. It doesn't mean his wanderlust personality was gone. He still went to all the other 4 islands to do the grand trials and he expressed joy in coming to a new island and exploring it. Bonds with people, Pokémon and nature was a constant theme in always every episode so alola becoming a second home for ash isn't rammed down at all, it felt a natural progression to me. Hence, alola was a perfect region for ash to become Champion